September 21

Tube 2, Day 110

Day 510 Since Feeding Tube Insertion

This is my final blog post. Later today Jenny & James are taking me to see Dr. Burns and I won’t be coming home. It’s OK. I feel miserable and it’s hard to get comfortable in any position. My kidneys are shutting down…they’ve been through a lot.

A couple of weeks ago I had a kidney stone stuck in my right ureter (between my kidney & my bladder), and that was bad news – my kidney was blowing up like a balloon. After two nights at MedVet I seemed to have passed it, and I came home on a Thursday only to have to go back in the wee small hours of Sunday morning. I hurt all over and I couldn’t go pee. I stayed at MedVet for two more nights. I came home with 5 different medications, including a powerful pain medication that kept me pretty out of it. I haven’t been myself since then. I just want to lie around and sleep.

Last week I went back for a check-up and came home with 2 more medications – plus I’ve been getting food through my tube and (arrgghh) sub-q fluids again. James & Jenny were hoping that I’d turn another corner and return to (relatively) good health one more time, but I’ve had enough.

Jenny & James are feeling very sad today, and Jenny says they probably will for a while. They’re glad I came to live with them and we got to spend 7 years together (I’m glad, too). I know that thanks to them I got to spend a lot more time enjoying life than I thought I would when we first found out I was in chronic renal failure.

I’m thankful to Dr. Burns for helping figure out what was wrong with me and all the folks at Red Maples Veterinary Clinic for taking care of me whenever Jenny & James had to go out of town. I’m thankful to Dr. Forman for being my kidney doctor and the staff at MedVet for nursing me when I was very sick. I know they did all they could to help me get well.

Thanks for keeping tabs on me by reading my blog. If you feel the urge to do something when you hear of my passing, I hope you’ll make a donation to a humane society or other animal charity to help pets in need, like I once was.